Matching business strategy and CIO characteristics: The impact on organizational performance

a r t i c l e i n f o This paper examines the match between chief information officer (CIO) characteristics and the organization's business strategy and how this match influences the organization's business performance. Based on the theoretical underpinnings of typologies of business strategy, alignment between IT strategy and business strategy and upper echelon theory, this study proposes a research model. This study uses survey data from 81 CIOs/IT managers to test the model empirically. The results indicate that a match between business strategy and CIOs of certain repertoires of competencies, experiences and personalities could lead to better organizational performance. The business performance in " matched " organizations is significantly better than that in " mismatched " ones. In a diverse and ever-changing marketplace, organizations are constantly seeking to harness technology to improve their core com-petency and gain competitive advantage, because the agility of an organization to respond to changes in the competitive environment is highly dependent on its leverage on information technology (IT) (Peppard, 2010). Explicitly, knowing how to apply IT in an appropriate and timely way and in harmony with business strategies, goals, and needs could bring the organization closer to business success (Luftman & Brier, 1999; Tallon, 2007). In other words, aligning IT strategy with business strategy has become a critical issue in most For instance, some prior studies advocate the importance of considering the role of strong partnerships and mutual understanding and support between IT managers and top, and the importance of aligning IT strategy with business strategy for organizations across different industries The person in an organization who knows technology and business sufficiently well is the chief information officer (CIO). With the increasing importance of IT in transforming business, the role of a CIO has evolved significantly during the past two decades to reflect both the firm's IT infrastructure and IT strategy (Chun & Mooney, 2009). To-date, a CIO is both an executive-level manager who focuses on the firm's strategy and a technical manager who focuses on minimizing costs by rationalizing and leveraging the existing IT infrastructure (Chun & Mooney, 2009). CIOs wield the greatest organizational power to influence the exploitation of IT in their organizations since they have the best knowledge of the technology progression and characteristics. Furthermore, they are the key strategic decision makers who plan and direct the organization's IT strategy and its implementation (Earl & Feeny, 1994). Evidently, people …